hunder Bay Kings AAA Hockey
Media Update
Release date: Sunday, January 28, 2018
Kings go 1-2 in NAPHL action Sunday
BLAINE, Minn. – Goals were difficult to come by for the Thunder Bay major and minor midget Kings Sunday in North American Prospects Hockey League action Sunday in Blaine, Minn., as they went a combined 1-2 in a trio of games.
Starting the day vs. the Sioux Falls Stampede the minor midgets were shutout 5-0 thanks to a 25-save performance from their goalkeeper Austin Cooley.
Stephan Bourgeois faced 37 attempts in defeat for Thunder Bay.
Later in the day the took on the Madison Capitols and rebounded with a 3-2 shootout triumph.
After Madison opened the scoring with a second period power play marker, Thunder Bay countered 37 seconds later as Michael Stubbs and Travis Hensrud combined to set-up Trystan Goodman at 13:09.
The Capitols got that back though before the middle frame was complete to take a one-goal lead into the third.
Mason Bazaluk did tie it at 10:27 of the third with Hensrud and Nikolas Campbell supplying the helpers to send it to overtime.
In the extra session Kings’ goaltender Eric Vanska made a number of quality stops to keep the game going.
The Kings’ best chance to win it came with a second left in OT, but Mackenzie Sedgwick was denied on a late penalty shot.
However, moving on to the shutout, Stubbs won it for Thunder Bay as darted in, went backhand, and roofed the decider high over Capitols’ netminder Carter Deinhammer.
Vanska finished with 26 saves to record the win.
Meanwhile major midget play saw the under-18 Kings blanked 4-0 by the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders from Colorado.
Zachary Purcell paced the RoughRiders with a pair of goals.
Thunder Bay was outshot 32-12 in the contest with Seth McKay suffering the setback in net.
The minor midgets conclude NAPHL regular season play Monday at 9:30 a.m. vs. the Arizona Bobcats while the major midgets finish up against the U-18 Madison side at 1:30 p.m.
Of note, in the NAPHL All-Star Games held Saturday night, Thunder Bay’s Stubbs had a goal to help Team East edge Team West 5-4 in the under-16 contest that also featured Kings’ defenceman Matthew Halushak skating for the East.
You also had Thunder Bay blueliner Zach Fortin as a member of Team North that won the U-18 All-Star Game, 4-3 in overtime, vs. Team South.
All NAPHL contests are streamed online at HockeyTV.com.
